


The Chief

by Datawolf39



Series: Guide Me [2]
Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: F/M, Hector has made a lot of friends, I love Gael, Never judge a book by its cover people, Watch Coco in Spanish if you can, Why the police didn't help out, comeuppance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 12:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15863493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Datawolf39/pseuds/Datawolf39
Summary: Set after they find Hector





	1. An Officer's Comeuppance

**Author's Note:**

> Explains the lack of police assistance. There is a reason for the age old adage of never judging a book by its cover.

“Who can tell me what this is?” 

The officers assembled in the room looked at the document that the Chief of Police was holding up.

“Well?” the man prompted.

“It’s a missing persons report, Sir.”

“Very good, Officer Hernandez,” the Chief said. “Now who can tell me the proper procedure for a missing persons report?”

“We take the report, and spread the information to other emergency agencies, and inform all officers so that they can be watching for the person. Also a detective is assigned the case , using whatever assets available to search until the person in located,” an officer responded.

“Does everyone agree with Officer Rodriguez?”

There was a murmur of agreement through the room.

“Very well, so you all know a missing persons report when you see it, and you all know proper procedure,” here the Chief voice gained a hard edge, “so the only reason for not following the rules is a personal disregard for either the rules or a person.”

“Officer Cortez, front and center.” 

The officer in question marched up.

“Two weeks ago, one Imelda Rivera came to the station to report her husband missing. Please enlighten me on while proper protocol was not followed.”

“Her husband is Héctor Rivera. The Day of the Dead is approaching, and-”

“You thought you would wait until you saw him trying to cross the bridge,” the Chief growled.

The officer took a step back without meaning to. Never before had he seen his superior so angry.

“Why, pray tell, did you feel this was acceptable?” the Chief said dangerously.

“He has a record, and he added a lot of extra paperwork- and well I didn’t think it-” his confession was cut off by a winged panther leaping at him and baring its teeth.

“He was in danger you imbecile!” the Chief exclaimed, before calming himself. The panther backed away, and the Chief hauled the officer up. “No matter your personal grievance against him, you should have followed procedure. I am hereby relieving you of your position.”

Cortez’s temper flared. “Just because I didn’t report some nearly forgotten-”

“If you value your unbroken bones you won’t finish that statement,” the Chief said coldly.

“Did it ever cross any of your minds to wonder why he tried so hard to cross the bridge?” 

The room stayed silent.

“Surely you all heard about the de la Cruz scandal?” 

Heads nodded rapidly.

“Because of that man’s actions, Héctor was denied his family because of a misunderstanding, every year he tried to cross the bridge even though he knew he would fail, it wasn’t to make more work for us during the holiday, it was because he wanted to see his daughter one last time before he was forgotten by her.”

All of the assembled officers looked a little shaken at this information, none of them had ever thought to ask or consider why the man was always so determined to cross over.

“So to recap,” he said to Cortez, "not only did you refuse to aid a man whose story you never asked for, you refused to aid his wife , Imelda Rivera, a very well known and respected member of the community, in finding him. and you broke many rules of police conduct. Thankfully, he was located by his family, but he had in fact been held captive since the night of his disappearance, and he is in a state similar to a coma, which they have no idea if he will awaken from, and what state he will be in if he does. That is why you are relived of duty. You let a personal grudge stop you from doing your job, and a good man went unaided by those that should have assisted him."

The Chief turned back to the rest of the officers. “I am mandating retraining in the areas of assisting the public, and several other areas so that we can be sure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Nobody argued the decision.


	2. The Day Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chief meets Imelda

_A day before the conference._

Imelda opened the door to find a man standing there.

“Imelda Rivera?”

She nodded.

The man took a breath, “My name is Gael Garcia, I am the Chief of Police-”

“I do not require your assistance, I have already found my husband no thanks to you,” she said angrily.

A relieved expression came over the man. “Gracias a Dios.” he said. “I saw the report, and I- I’m so sorry. I will relieve the officer that made the report of his position. If I had known about this, I would have personally aided in the search to find him.”

Imelda’s hardened glare, softened a bit. The words were so blatantly honest that she was unable to doubt them. In a way, this man reminded her a lot of her Héctor. His voice was similar, just slightly deeper, and he also had a similar set of markings, and a lot of other physical similarities.

“How do you know him?” she asked, inviting the man in.

He laughed. “It’s quite the funny story. I was not the Chief when we first met. He had tried to get across the bridge using my name. It was coincidence, apparently, he felt some connection with the name and went with it, and we both found it funny that we were so much alike. I consider him a friend, and if we so happened to turn up at the same place and exchange a few words now and then, well that was just coincidence.”

Imelda was liking the man more and more as he spoke. Héctor truly did have an odd mix of friends. It suddenly became clear to her, why Héctor didn’t have more lock-ups on his record.

Imelda led the man to Héctor, letting him see, the condition he husband was in. IT hurt to see such a vibrant individual so still, and somehow even in the stillness, there was a sense of pain and suffering.

He stayed for a little while, talking to Héctor, before giving Imelda his number, and asking her to call if Héctor woke before his next visit.

**Author's Note:**

> I just watched Coco with the Spanish audio, and OMG I love Gael. In English his voice is a little higher and perfect for Hector, and in Spanish his voice is deeper and still perfect for Hector.


End file.
